First Saturday

March was a loonngg month!  April is making up, weather-wise, for all of March's lack of warmth and sun.  We have had a couple of days in the 70s which has caused all the flowering trees and bushes to pop.  The Bradford Pears and Redbuds are all in their full glory, as well as just about every other tree, which means my allergies are in *their* full glory.  The cherry trees around the Tidal Basin in Washington DC were hazy pink when we went by yesterday - a sure sign they will bloom within the next week or so.  I do hope they hold off as I am taking next week off from work and do not want to miss my annual cherry blossom walk - when the weather is nice I walk around the Mall at lunch but always take at least one walk under the cherry blossoms. 

It was nice enough this morning to get outside and do some yard clean-up as well as some plant dividing and moving.  Several years ago there was some major roadwork up the way a bit, when they laid out the new road route it went through a daylily patch.  The Hubs stopped one night on his way home to talk with the work crew and they said to take what he wanted.  He didn't bring home many, but what he did liked where they were planted - of course these are the old-fashioned ditch lilies  that seem to live just about anywhere on anything so I wasn't too surprised and no, this is not a photo of my flowers - at least not yet!!!  We have an embankment that is starting to erode badly, so this morning I transplanted several dozen daylilies onto it - hopefully they will look like that picture in the next few years and hold the bank in place.  I have another area with hybridized daylilies that needs to be dug and divided but I will leave that for another day mostly because sitting at a desk all winter does NOT prepare one to do the necessary spring yard work!!

Sitting at a desk all winter DOES prepare you for stitching though!  And as it is the first Saturday it's YOTA posting day!!!  YOTA is hosted over at Pull the Other Thread and focuses on finishing your WIPs.  I have four projects on my YOTA list and stitched on each one at least once in March.

You can see my progress on a couple of projects at my March WIPocalypse post here.  Two of the projects have progress photos to show since then:

Elegant Doily by Kayann's Kreations went from this:

To this:

And Santa's Magic by Mirabelia went from here:

to here:

Santa will be on the frame the rest of today and maybe tomorrow.  I mentioned I was taking the week off, well I have no plans for the week other than sleeping in and not going to work so I will have a lot more stitching time than I usually do so will have plenty of time to work on Three Tulips which is up next in the rotation.  Not taking Santa off the frame won't take anything away from Tulips or at least that's what I have convinced myself of and I am really enjoying working on Santa right now.

Second New Moon

It has been an interesting year, moon wise, we had two new moons in January and two in March.  I believe we get back to a more normal one a month in April.  Other than being an interesting trivia item, it has made TUSAL posting a bit off.  TUSAL?  Yep, TUSAL - it stands for Totally Useless Stitch Along and is probably the easiest SAL you can participate in.  If you do needlework of any kind, you have the raw material for a TUSAL post.  All those little bits of floss that are too short to use for anything else? Instead of your family wearing them to work or school your pets dragging them around the house on their fur throwing them out as trash useless leftover bits, save them and post a photo on the new moon.  Why?  That is the totally useless part but of course Why Not?  seems to be as good an answer as any.  It is also fun to look at all the jars/containers that others show - amazing how pretty bits and pieces of thread can look.

 is hosted by Sharon over at It's Daffycat - if you click on the button it should take you to the information page.

 

 

The perle cotton bits from Elegant Doily do a wonderful job of tamping down the stack and dominating but bits and pieces from Snowy Pines, Strawberry Summer and Secret Victorian Garden have also been added this month.

Smalls SAL, late IHSW and Early Just Nan Check-in

Another blog opening that rants about the weather!  We had snow again on Tuesday, not a lot, but it covered the ground and then it got windy, REALLY windy.  It was 19 degrees when I went into work on Wednesday.  Given that our average morning temperature this time of year is in the 40s, I was not happy.  Snow flurries again Wednesday morning.  They are saying it will warm up to almost normal sometime in the next few months...  I am really afraid that spring will be consumed by winter and we'll jump straight into the heat and humidity of summer.  DSon has made it known that the first person he hears complain about the heat this summer is in danger of bodily harm!

Anyway, IHSW was last weekend, so I am a bit late posting but one of the pieces that I spent a lot of the weekend on was for my Smalls SAL so I decided to wait on those two and post a little early for the Just Nan SAL.

First up is my  check-in.  I started Snowy Pines by Little House Needleworks late last month but it was pushed to the side for a while.  I pulled it out this weekend and finished it:

It is stitched on 30-count Northern Cross Natural linen with DMC.  The extra for this one was the Mill Hill Beads in the snowflake and the snow drift in front of the house.  Tomorrow is my AWS day off  I think I've mentioned that I work an alternative work schedule (AWS), 8 - 9 hours days, one 8-hour day and one day every other week off which is my smalls stitching day so I need to pick another one out of the stash.  I seem to be on a roll with these Little House Needleworks' ornaments and I have a lot of them ready to go, so I will most likely start another one.

For the rest of   I worked on Chatelaine's Secret Victorian Garden and Elegant Doily. 

SVG was shown in my last post, but I did get a little bit more done before its rotation time was up:

Elegant Doily from Kayann's Kreations went on the frame Sunday morning after I finished Snowy Pines. 

Lots more eyelets stitched mostly those right there in the center section with lots more left to stitch.  I do get into a rhythm while stitching them so they don't take long but they do get a bit boring.

And for my early  check-in:

I didn't finish a Just Nan this month, but I did make progress.  Here is where Strawberry Summer was:

I was able to get it to just past the half-way point:

This is stitched on 28-count Savannah Rose with DMC floss and perle cotton.  The beads are from the bead pack that was sold along with the pattern. 

All of the buttons in my post should take you to the site hosting the stitch along.  If they don't and you are interested in any of them, please let me know and I will get the link to you.

March Stitch from Stash

It seems like ages ago that I posted my February Stitch from Stash post, but it was only a month ago - I do not remember March being this long.  I am sure part of it is the weather - we are not having typical March weather here in central Virginia.  We had another snow storm Sunday into Monday (8" or so in Washington DC meant the offices were closed again) and they are predicting another chance of snow on Tuesday.  This is not at all what my previous Marchs have been like.  I do hope that we don't go from winter cold straight into summer heat this year.

 I am happy to report that    has really allowed me to focus on what I have  and what I really need how many seasonal series, etc. can one house support?.  While I am finding lots of pretty things, I am now stopping and questioning even adding them to my wish list, never mind buying them.  Mel at Epic Stitching is hosting and  even though registration for official participation is closed, you can still play along.  The button above should take you to all the rules although it is pretty easy - you get a monthly budget and you need to stick with it for 11 out of 12 months.  There are occasional splurges allowed (we recently had Market weekend) and unused funds do roll over so you can save up for that big project.  Since my last post:

Carry Over -            $50.00
March Allowance - $25.00
Purchases -              $0
Balance Forward -   $75.00

I didn't have any new starts from stash, but I did replace a project in my rotation with one of my WIPs.  Chatelaine's Serengeti was replaced by her Secret Victorian Garden. 

Here is where it was when I pulled it out of the WIP box:

And here it is today:

Secret Victorian Garden by Chatelaine.  Stitched on 32-count Carol's Meadow evenweave from Silkweaver Fabrics with fibers and beads as kitted from European Cross Stitch

The lower right corner is finished through part 11, the blue line is the beginning of part 12.  I am leaning towards doing part 12 on each side as I go as stitching that outside border all at once might do me in.

Here is one of my favorite parts of this entire piece:

It isn't a very good photo, but I really love this blackwork section.
This will stay on the frame through today and tomorrow Elegant Doily will be put on the frame.

Before I forget, it's !!!!  This is an easy SAL - sign up and stitch!  Yes, that's it, stitch and then show us all what you accomplished.  I love no stress SALs...

March WIPocalypse

There's a full moon which means no not werewolves it is time for my WIPocalypse post (this will be very picture heavy).

    is hosted by Measi.  If you click on the dragon badge you should be taken straight to the information page.  This is my third year participating and it has been a wonderful incentive to work on my WIPs.  This year topics have been added for each month and this month's topic is to show my favorite stitching place.  My favorite place to stitch is this:


From the balcony of the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel in Hilo, Hawaii

However, my reality is:

This is my corner of the den.  Everything is right there within easy reach and I can see this:

With a slight turn of my head to the right I sometimes see this:

but more frequently it is this:

And that is my stitching place and my computer place and my storage place and the cat's bird watching place.

As I mentioned last month, I have four projects left from my original WIPocalypse list:

Mirabilia's Santa's Magic:

In February it was here:

And as of today, it is here:

Kayann's Kreations Elegant Doily went from here:

To here you really have to look to see the additional eyelets that were done on the left side:

Thanks to an unexpected day off from work, With Thy Needle and Thread's Three Tulips had the most progress.  It went from:

To:

And a final showing of Chatelaine's Serengeti, that went from here:

To here:

Yes, this is going to be the last showing of Serengeti for a while.  I have put Chatelaine's Secret Victorian Garden into the rotation as it is closest to being finished and I am hoping to either finish or get it very close to finished before the end of the year.  So from now on, you will see:

 



Wonderful Gift

Catherine of Bramblewood Stitches contacted me a while back after seeing my progress on Mirabilia's Santa's Magic asking if I would be interested in Mirabilia's Winter White Santa as she was not going to stitch it.  Oh my, what an amazing offer!!  It arrived in the mail yesterday and I am so excited and ready to start stitching him unfortunately, he will have to wait until I finish "Santa's Magic".

I have already pawed searched through my fabric stash and picked out Country Stitches' opalescent Dusty Night.  Here is a photo of the pattern on the fabric:

A floss toss will be needed, but I think this will work really well. Yes, you will have to listen to me complain about stitching on opalescent fabric again, but I really do think the effect will add to the finished piece and more sparkle on a Christmas piece is a good thing! 

Thank you again, Catherine!  Stitchers really are the best.

Snow Day Stitching

I had a bit more time for stitching this week than anticipated due to Tuesday being a snow day from work.  Well it wasn't really a snow day it was a "2 hour delay or telework or leave" day.  My road hadn't been plowed so two hours was not a feasible option and as I had been out of town the week before, I didn't have my work computer with me, so I took the day off and stitched and shoveled and chipped ice.

On the frame for the week was Three Tulips from With Thy Needle and Thread.  I was able to go from here: 

To here:

Stitched on 30-count Weeks Dye Works Parchment Linen with Weeks Dye Works, Gentle Arts Sampler Threads and DMC

I am close enough to a finish that I thought about continuing through today on it, but decided it was best to keep with the rotation plan. 

I also put a few stitches in Snowy Pines from Little House Needleworks.

Stitched on 30-count Natural Northern Cross Linen with DMC

I made one change to my WIP list.  I am participating in the Stitching Bandits' Chatelaine Challenge and after some deliberation and gentle coaxing I replaced Serengeti with Secret Victorian Garden.  SVG is much closer to a finish than any of my other Chatelaine WIPs and I thought the challenge would be just the thing to push it to a finish or at least closer to a finish.  Here is where it was when I last stitched on it:

Stitched on 32-count Silkweaver Carol's Meadow with recommended materials

Just Nan's Strawberry Summer is on the frame for this week.  I am not sure how much stitching I will get in today as daylight savings time started this morning one of the more ridiculous ideas that anyone has come up with and I do not adjust well to the change.  Unfortunately, I never fully adjust so I will continue feeling off until the switch back to standard time in October or November.